Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 3405 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| MUNICH TO INNSBRUCK | 1934 | 1934-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 17 mins 30 secs Credits: Filmmaker Lucy Fairbank Subject: Travel Transport Religion Politics Architecture |
| Summary Made by filmmaker Lucy Fairbank, this is part two of a travelogue of a trip around part of pre-war Europe. The film also includes rare footage of Adolf Hitler before the outbreak of the Second World War. The special jubilee season of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1934, marking the 300-year anniversary of the original vow to re-enact Jesus' Passi ... |
|
Description
Made by filmmaker Lucy Fairbank, this is part two of a travelogue of a trip around part of pre-war Europe. The film also includes rare footage of Adolf Hitler before the outbreak of the Second World War. The special jubilee season of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1934, marking the 300-year anniversary of the original vow to re-enact Jesus' Passion and Suffering every ten years thereafter, was the first performance after the Nazi regime's rise to power the year previous. Among...
Made by filmmaker Lucy Fairbank, this is part two of a travelogue of a trip around part of pre-war Europe. The film also includes rare footage of Adolf Hitler before the outbreak of the Second World War. The special jubilee season of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1934, marking the 300-year anniversary of the original vow to re-enact Jesus' Passion and Suffering every ten years thereafter, was the first performance after the Nazi regime's rise to power the year previous. Among other things, the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ordered the official poster for the jubilee season amended to include the message "Deutschland ruft dich!" ("Germany is calling you!"), and the Kraft durch Freude scheme's discount-travel programme offered special cut-rate packages to the Passion Play, including rail fare, tickets and accommodations.
Title-Munich to Tegernsee
The film opens with a woman sitting by the window in a hotel room in Munich; the double sinks and bed are visible and then there are shots of the busy streets outside. People walk along the pavements, cars and trams both drive on the road. There are shots of a big fountain, a boating lake, a market, caf?s and a group of people feeding pigeons in a square. A young man of Indian origin has two pigeons on his hands; he smiles at the camera.
The next scene is in the Bavarian Alps and there are shots of sail boats on a lake and people walking and cycling all around the lake. A man in lederhosen pushes his bike up the path past the camera. Also situated alongside the lake is a covered beer garden with women serving in traditional dress. A couple, both wearing traditional dress, walk along the path towards the camera.
The village is full of houses and buildings all built in the Bavarian style. Along the main street people go about their business, most of the men wear traditional lederhosen.
Title-Oberammergau, Bavarian Alps and Village Scenes
Crowds of people of all ages and ethnicities walk alongside train tracks towards a building with `Oberammergau' written on the side. Again most of the men are wearing lederhosen.
Title-Going along the main street of the village.
The street is busy with pedestrians, including people of African and Indian origin, and men and women in traditional dress.
Title-At the house of Hans Zwink (Our host)
Shot of a large chalet-style house with several balconies and many trees in the front garden; a woman sits outside and smiles at the camera. Following this a young woman and a young girl, both wearing white aprons, walk along hand0in-hand; the young woman smiles at the camera. There are also shots of the large, white, ornate houses and buildings in the village. There are many people cycling around the village and one of the cyclists stares at the camera and he goes b. Then there are lingering shots of a building with paintings on the side.
A group of firemen walk by and smile at the camera; they have their helmets on a one of them is swinging a length of rope. The next few shots take in more buildings and the numerous swastika flags on buildings and flag poles. Following this are shots showing the beautiful valley in which the village is situated; the mountains rise up above it.
Title-A walk in the Bavarian Alps
A man in lederhosen walks along a worn path ahead of the camera; the route takes them through the middle of the valley and there are many shots of the surrounding countryside. Some locals pass by on carts, with horses and on foot.
Back in the village and there are shots of the locals chatting to each other in the square and washing sheets in the river; a young woman kneels at the edge of the river washing and stares at the camera.
There are shots of a big city with people bustling about in the rain with umbrellas. There are no traditional clothes visible in this scene and there are some guards in uniforms.
Title-Hitler visits the passion play.
A large crowd has gathered behind rope barriers which lead up to the `Hotel Whittelsbach'. Men and women of all ages and dressed quite formally push to get a better view. There are swastika flags flying from the hotel and guards pushing the crowds back as they become more frenzied. Several plain clothes men run down the middle of the crowd in order to move them and many of the crowd salute in the direction of the hotel. Then a car drives through the middle of the crowd; Hitler is standing on top of the car waving his hand at the crowd. In the aftermath most people disperse and leave but some people still mill about.
There are shots taken from the back of the hotel as people exit in order to see Hitler as he continues on his visit through the village; more hands can be seen saluting.
Title-Some characters of the Passion play, Anny Rutz (Mary), Klara Myer (Magdalena), Anton Lang (Prologue)
There is a shot of a large, white building with a Red Cross flag on the outside and medics waiting near the entrance.
Title-Anny Rutz (Mary)
A woman stands for the camera smiling and looking shy. In the next shot she is talking to people on the street and walks into a building, possibly the venue for the play.
Title-Klara Myer
A young woman smiles and talks to the camera. There is a shot of her exiting the venue too.
Title-Anton Lang.
An older man with a big beard exits the venue and smiles at the camera as he passes by.
Title-John, Judas, Annas, Caiphas, Pilate, Dathan and other actors.
Title-John
A younger man with long hair exits the building and smiles at the camera.
Title-Judas
A young man with dark hair and beard enters the building
There are several shots of many men, women and children entering and exiting the venue at various times. Most of the men have long hair and quite a few are wearing lederhosen.
Title-A thrilling journey from Oberammergau to Innsbruck
Some people are sitting in an open air carriage on a moving train; it goes through tunnels, passes through the valley and over the mountains. There are long shots of the train tracks taken from the front of the moving train.
Title-Innsbruck
There is a big, arched gateway at the top of a busy street; cars and trams drive along the street. The town is overshadowed by the mountains.
Title-Marie Theresa Street.
A long street with tall, pillar monuments, bustles with lots of people. There are grand buildings along the street and the mountains surround the town.
Title-In old Innsbruck
Horses, carts and pedestrians walk along a smaller street with equally ornate buildings The final shot is taken on a large bridge and looks down to the river and the mountains in the distance.
Context
This is one of many films made by school teacher Lucy (Louisa) Fairbanks, who lived in Linthwaite, Huddersfield. Lucy became interested in filming in the early 1930s when she joined the Huddersfield Cine Club, which was founded in 1932 (still going today as the Huddersfield Video and Cine Club). Having learnt filming techniques from her fellow members, Lucy bought a fairly expensive Sieman’s cine camera (which cost £29 in 1939). Her earliest films date from 1934, and she continued filming...
This is one of many films made by school teacher Lucy (Louisa) Fairbanks, who lived in Linthwaite, Huddersfield. Lucy became interested in filming in the early 1930s when she joined the Huddersfield Cine Club, which was founded in 1932 (still going today as the Huddersfield Video and Cine Club). Having learnt filming techniques from her fellow members, Lucy bought a fairly expensive Sieman’s cine camera (which cost £29 in 1939). Her earliest films date from 1934, and she continued filming to at least 1962, with a break during the war years when film was difficult to obtain. For more on Lucy and her film collection see the Context for Out and about in Yorkshire
Munich To Innsbruck is one of three films Lucy made as part of her round Europe trip in 1934, taking her to Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. The other two films are Huddersfield To Nuremberg and Lucerne To London. Two years later Lucy filmed a trip to the US and Canada, and they were travelling on the then almost new super liner Queen Mary. Lucy continued taking films of her holidays right up until 1961, including footage in colour from the Italian lakes, which would all later be used in the class room to inspire the young students. This film stands out from the others in that Lucy, jostling in the crowd, manages to get right up close to Hitler as he is driven past in a cavalcade in Oberammergau. Former pupil Ian Baxter, talking on the TV series, The Way We Were states that, “she was always good at getting in the front row, this little middle aged lady with a cine camera they didn’t take much serious notice of her.” 1934 marked the tercentenary of the passion play, first performed in 1634. The play gained an almost mythical status when, apparently, no-one died from the bubonic plague after it was put on in 1633. It soon became a great spectacle and tradition, being performed every ten years, with each performance lasting about seven hours and running from May through to October, attracting half a million people. The play depicts the life and death of Jesus interconnected with scenes from the Old Testament. The whole village is involved in the play in one way or another, providing all the actors, and it has become central to the local economy. Indeed there has been criticism of excessive commercialisation, going against the spirit of the play. Kenneth Robinson however, writing about the first performance after this one, states that the 1934 production raised 3 ¾ million marks, with most going on costs, leaving 1 ½ million needed for the local community. Richard Walsh goes so far as to state that “The play is Oberammergau”. The play has become a huge tourist attraction. After Thomas Cook visited in 1880 he, along with other tourist agencies, began organising trips to see the play. Although the play is Catholic, many Protestants are also drawn towards it, and changes in the text over the years have made it more ecumenical. The play has been charged with being anti-Semitic, but recent re-writes of the text and how it is directed, mainly at the hands of Otto Huber and Christian Stückl (pointing out that Jesus was never anything other than a Jew), have greatly lessened these elements – especially for the 2000 production in the wake of criticism by made by Swidler and Sloyan 1999 – although not all are convinced (of course, for some the whole passion story is intrinsically anti-Semitic – see Toby Axelrod, Katja Thimm and Richard Walsh, References). Whether or not Lucy Fairbank’s trip was specifically designed to see the Passion Play is not known, but this would certainly have been an interesting time to visit Germany. Having being made Chancellor in January 1933, Hitler lost no time in using the already extensive powers of the office in setting himself up with dictatorial powers: in February the Law for the Protection of People and State was passed suspending civil liberties; in March the Enabling Act, granting him powers to over-ride both parliament (the Reichstag) and the constitution; in May trade unions are banned and in July all political parties are banned except the Nazi Party. Thousands of oppositionists found themselves interned in the first concentration camp to be set up, in 1933 at Dachau, in Bavaria. Although the persecution of Jews was at an early stage, it was still very evident by this time – with refugees already arriving in Britain, albeit with British immigration restrictions. We do not know what Lucy Fairbank would have known or made of all of this. It certainly wasn’t unusual for British holidaymakers to go to Germany in the 1930s, and come back impressed (much as some did with Stalin’s USSR in that decade). Much of the British upper class, including in the Royal family, were sympathetic to Hitler (see the interview with Rachel Johnson, References). The British press did report much of what was happening, but they almost unanimously followed the dominant line of appeasement of the British establishment of the time, right up to the invasion of Poland in 1939. At the beginning of the 1930s, both the Mail and the Mirror, owned by Nazis admirer Viscount Rothermere, carried articles supporting Hitler and Moseley’s Blackshirts. The cinema too, including the influential newsreels, was uncritical of Hitler – with the BBC offering a slightly more critical view. Hitler attended the 1930 production of the passion play in Oberammergau, and on this occasion, 13th August, it was at another important juncture in his long-term strategy. Hitler had already purged his own party of possible enemies in the Night of the Long Knives on June 30th. On the 2nd August Reich President Paul von Hindenburg died, and Hitler immediately abolished the Reich Presidency, making himself both head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces: the army now swore a personal oath of unconditional obedience to him as "the Führer of the German Reich and People”. One newspaper headline, on Aug. 4, 1934, proclaimed "Today Hitler Is All of Germany." On August 19th, just six days after his visit to Oberammergau, there was to be a national vote to ratify Hitler’s new title and powers. He won an overwhelmingly victory, although, according to the official figures, over a sixth of voters defied the intense pressure to conform and did not vote ‘yes’, rising to a third in some big working-class areas (Kershaw). As Ian Kershaw notes, it is very difficult to estimate just how much real support Hitler had among the population given that no opposition was tolerated. A very sizeable minority clearly did oppose him, especially in strong working class areas, and some 77,000 German citizens were killed by the regime in one way or another for their oppositional activity. Nevertheless, Hitler’s support did increase during the mid-1930s. There are many reasons for this, but Kershaw singles out, in particular, two main ones: the increase in employment, and the sense that Germany was once again strong. Hitler defied the hated Versailles Treaty and gave a new sense of nationhood after the discredited Weimer Republic. Along with this new sense of order and security, Kershaw also argues that: “Millions of Germans who might otherwise have been opposed to, doubtful about, or only marginally committed to the regime and Nazi doctrine were publicly seen to give Hitler their backing. This was crucial to the dynamic of Nazi rule.” The Nazi salute, as seen in this film, was therefore a major instrument in intimidation. What is more, Hitler was able to take credit for anything that was perceived to be good, yet distance himself from anything that was seen as bad. He laid claim to making Germany great again without war, and hid his real agenda, such as mass genocide, from view. In other words, Hitler was a very skilful propagandist who manufactured his support. Some historians, such as Laurence Rees, point to the importance of his personality; while others, such as Robert Black, argue that without the support of big business, in particular that of the industrial giant Friedrich Krupp AG, Hitler would never have been able to come to power and hold onto it in the manner in which he did. In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King stated that, "We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’." Although not entirely true – Nazi thugs would beat up who they chose to willy-nilly – Hitler was careful to win votes, and appealing to the one third of the population that were Catholic was part of that. Hitler was enthusiastic in using the play for his purposes, declaring: “It is vital that the Passion Play be continued at Oberammergau; for never has the menace of Jewry been so convincingly portrayed as in this presentation of what happened in the times of the Romans.” The controlling state leisure organization, Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy), offered discount packages to the Oberammergau Passion Play, including rail fare, tickets and accommodation. Hitler was brought up a devout Catholic and in his public pronouncements he claimed that Christianity was allied to his cause, and never renounced his Catholicism. The main source of quotes from Hitler to the opposite effect, made in private, come from the book Hitler's Table Talk – for example, "You are either a Christian or a German, you cannot be both" – but many have challenged the authenticity of this source. What cannot be doubted is that Hitler was unscrupulous in using whatever served his purpose in whatever way best suited him. Famously, the Catholic Church signed a concordat with Hitler in 1933 allowing it to maintain its properties and activities. His actions are therefore difficult to judge; but although he wooed the Church, he ensured that they had little power. Bavaria, and Munich in particular, were the heartlands of the early rise of the Nazi movement: the Deutscher Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party), the forerunners of the Nazi Party, was founded in Munich in 1919; it was here, in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall, that Hitler honed his rhetorical skills; and here also that he attempted his abortive putsch in November 1923. And of course, it was in Nuremberg, also in Bavaria, that the infamous Nazis rallies took place. There is still much dispute over the degree of support that the Nazis actually had in the country, and in Bavaria in particular. The British historian Ian Kershaw has claimed that although the majority of people in Bavaria were anti-sematic, they were not virulently so. But whereas Kershaw sees the general attitude towards the policies of the Nazis as one of "indifference", he has been in an interesting debate with Israeli historian Dov Kulka who has argued that "passive complicity" is a more appropriate description. In the aftermath of the Second World war and the holocaust, as one might expect, the Oberammergau Passion Play came under renewed scrutiny. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council's declaration that Jews should no longer be held collectively and perpetually responsible for the death of Jesus, in 1965, the following year many Jewish intellectuals —including Arthur Miller, Lionel Trilling, Stanley Kunitz, Leonard Bernstein, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Elie Wiesel, George Steiner and Paul Celan (but also Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll, both brought up as Catholics) – signed a protest, and there was a small boycott of the 1970 production. It was after this that discussions with Jewish leaders led to changes to the play. The film shows the theatre which was purpose built in 1890, although it had just been enlarged in preparation for the anniversary. It states that Lucy’s host was Hans Zwink. He may well, in all probability, be one of the Zwink family that have been performing in the play from its origins, and related to the sculptor Sebastian Zwink, whose new villa housed the Prince and Princess of Wales when they visited in 1880. Han’s father Johann, a decorator, played Judas in 1900 – having played John in the previous two productions; and the current musical director, Markus Zwink, whose father was in four productions, is also a member of the same family. According to Leon Zitze in his book The Ghost in the Gospels, all of the leading actors in the performance of this year were played by Nazi Party members, and that the only staunchly anti-Nazi was Hans Zwink, who also played Judas. In Zitze’s view, this Judas was a true friend of Jesus up to the end. This is in line with recent revisionist views on Judas, some linked to the Judas Gospels, discovered in the 1970s – although the idea that Judas has been unfairly portrayed goes back much further. In the present text of the play Judas is manipulated, and when he discovers this he storms the Temple demanding Jesus’ release: he merely wishes a fair trial before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish assembly. Surely Hitler would not have agreed to this revision, not least because the concept of a fair trial was entirely alien to him. Of the many lessons to be learnt from the history of Nazi Germany, Hitler’s ability to pose as the (false) messiah – in complete opposition to all that Jesus stood for – must surely be one of the most continually relevant. References Robert Black, Fascism in Germany, 2 vols, Steyn Publications, 1975. Richard Griffith, Fellow Travellers of the Far-right: British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany 1933-39, Oxford Paperbacks, 1983. Darin Kerr, ‘Oberammergau in the Nazi era: the fate of a Catholic village in Hitler's Germany’, Ecumenica Volume: 4 Issue: 2 (2011-09-01) p. 83-84. Ian Kershaw, Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution, Yale University Press, 2008. Ian Kershaw, ‘The Hitler Myth’, History Today, Volume 35, Issue 11, 1985 Paul L Maier, ‘Oberammergau Overhaul : Changes Make the Passion Play More Sensitive to Jews and More Faithful to Scripture’, Christianity Today, 44 no 9 Ag 7 2000, p 74-75. Laurence Rees, The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler, Ebury Press, 2013 James Shapiro, Oberammergau: The troubling story of the world’s most famous Passion Play, Pantheon, New York, 2000. Helena Waddy, Oberammergau in the Nazi Era: The Fate of a Catholic Village in Hitler's Germany, OUP, 2010. Richard Walsh, ‘The Christians Kill Jesus Again: Spectacle, Drama, and Politics at Oberammergau’, Bible & Critical Theory, 7 no 1 2011. Leon Zitze, The Ghost in the Gospels, iUniverse, 2006. Toby Axelrod, ‘Oberammergau passion play better, but not good’, JTA 25 May 2010 James Shapiro, ‘Updating (and Retouching) an Old Passion Play’, New York Times Frank McDonough, ‘Opposition and Resistance in Nazi Germany’ Why Did The British Media Seek To Appease Hitler In The Years 1933-1939? (anonymous essay, History of Journalism) Leonard Swidler and Gerard Sloyan (1999). The passion of the Jew Jesus: Recommended changes in the Oberammergau passion play after 1984 Ian Kershaw, The Führer Myth: How Hitler Won Over the German People, Spiegel Online International D. J. Dutton, ‘Proponents and critics of appeasement’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography A.J. Goldmann, New Kind of Passion in an ‘Alpine Jerusalem’, Jewish Daily Forum Interview with Rachel Johnson, British Girls in the Third Reich: 'We Had the Time of Our Lives', Spiegel Online Katja Thimm, ‘Modernity Vs. Tradition in Oberammergau: Bavarian Village Divided over Updates to World-Famous Passion Play’, Spiegel Online International |
